Sudden Fish Death, Need Help ID, Potential Emergency?

[ccombs]

I got a new Mandarin a few days back. He had been healthy at the store for awhile and I do not have a place to QT, so I got him since he looked extremely healthy.

For the first 2 days he did great, picked pods off the rocks and swam around like normal. This morning I saw him sitting on the sand, but nothing looked abnormal. This afternoon he appeared to be doing random, sporadic movements. Much like the ones you see fish do right before they die. He also has a large, grey spot on his back. I can't tell if it is an injury or infection. For the love of all that is good and holy, please tell me this isn't uronema. It looks too grey to be that, but I wanted to check with the fine people here on R2R.

The pictures make it look like an injury to his fin... however, it looks less apparent in person.

Other fish seem to be normal right now. Goby has been hiding a lot more the past 2 days, but he still comes out for food.

Right now the Mandarin is in a specimen container, just randomly twitching and I do not believe he will recover.

I will check water parameters shortly, but this does not seem like the type of thing that is caused by some parameters being slightly off.

 

[Big G]

Looks more like a bacterial infection. NFG powder is my favorite weapon of choice for nasty bacterial infections. But it can be hard to get quickly. Some real LFS carry it. Or treat with the trifecta of Metro + Furan2 + Kanaplex for 10-14 days.

 

[Fishy212]

Just got a spotted mandarin myself. I am hoping for the best! QT and the acclimation process is super important when dealing with this sensitive fish. How did you acclimate him? Check your Salinity.

 

[ccombs]

Looks more like a bacterial infection. NFG powder is my favorite weapon of choice for nasty bacterial infections. But it can be hard to get quickly. Some real LFS carry it. Or treat with the trifecta of Metro + Furan2 + Kanaplex for 10-14 days.

Since the fin seems ripped up, do you think it is bacterial from the injury? I have the trifecta on hand. Should I be concerned about the other fish at this moment?

 

[ccombs]

Just got a spotted mandarin myself. I am hoping for the best! QT and the acclimation process is super important when dealing with this sensitive fish. How did you acclimate him? Check your Salinity.

I did a temperature acclimation by floating the bag, then a drip acclimation for several hours. Fish looked fantastic and was eating right away. Nothing looked wrong until this afternoon.

 

[Big G]

Since the fin seems ripped up, do you think it is bacterial from the injury? I have the trifecta on hand. Should I be concerned about the other fish at this moment?

Bacterial infections are usually caused by something else like the injury you suspect or internal parasites (very common). So dosing with the trifecta will treat both internal parasites and infection, win - win.

 

[ccombs]

Bacterial infections are usually caused by something else like the injury you suspect or internal parasites (very common). So dosing with the trifecta will treat both internal parasites and infection, win - win.

Well the Mandarin didn't make it, are you suggesting I treat everyone else in the tank, or treat with the trifecta in a QT environment if they show signs? Sorry, I just want to be sure I clearly understand your recommendation and not kill my inverts/corals.

 

[Fishy212]

Well the Mandarin didn't make it, are you suggesting I treat everyone else in the tank, or treat with the trifecta in a QT environment if they show signs? Sorry, I just want to be sure I clearly understand your recommendation and not kill my inverts/corals.

Sorry to hear that man I know they are super sensitive. When I added my guy a few nights ago, I cut all the lights, turned off all the power heads for a few hrs , fed my other fish to prevent any kind of aggression. I also supplemented a lot of pods to ensure it was a smooth transition.

 

[Big G]

Well the Mandarin didn't make it, are you suggesting I treat everyone else in the tank, or treat with the trifecta in a QT environment if they show signs? Sorry, I just want to be sure I clearly understand your recommendation and not kill my inverts/corals.

Oh, man. Sorry for your loss. Bacterial infections seldom spread to other fish within a tank. It's not like Ich, velvet, Brook, etc. It should not be necessary to treat your other fish.

Just to be clear. If you should be in this situation in the future, the only thing you would ever move to a QT would be the "fish with the bacterial infection showing" and then treat it with antibiotics.

 

[ccombs]

Oh, man. Sorry for your loss. Bacterial infections seldom spread to other fish within a tank. It's not like Ich, velvet, Brook, etc. It should not be necessary to treat your other fish.

Just to be clear. If you should be in this situation in the future, the only thing you would ever move to a QT would be the "fish with the bacterial infection showing" and then treat it with antibiotics.

Ok, that is what I thought you were saying, but I just wanted to be 100% sure I didn't miss the memo about doing antibiotics in the DT hahahaha.

It is crazy, no signs of infection to death happened in about 4-6 hours.

 

[ccombs]

Sorry to hear that man I know they are super sensitive. When I added my guy a few nights ago, I cut all the lights, turned off all the power heads for a few hrs , fed my other fish to prevent any kind of aggression. I also supplemented a lot of pods to ensure it was a smooth transition.

Haha, I actually did all those things minus power heads. Best of luck to ya, after a post mortem exam, it seems to be an attack or injury of some sort leading to the infection. I will be closely watching my other fish for the next few weeks and hopefully they will all be healthy and there isn't something bigger going on here.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Sorry to hear this. I alway have a love for those guys.

 

[ccombs]

So now a new update. This morning I woke up to my wife telling me something is wrong with the tank. If that doesn't wake you up in a panic, idk what will. Turns out nothing major, but an emerald crab was dead (and I haven't had him too long). I don't want to correlate something that is a coincidence, but I am wondering if the emerald might have gotten the infection too from maybe being the attacker or potentially going to 'clean up' once the mandarin started dying in the tank. Less than 8 hours ago he was picking away at the rocks, now he turns up dead this morning. Any thoughts?

Edit- Nevermind, didn't realize that my wife pulled a molt out of the tank this morning. What I saw was a full molt and with the mandarin, didn't even think about him molting haha.